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A Director Burrows Beneath
The 'Thin Cover of Civilization'

By

Emily Parker

Updated Oct. 2, 2008 12:01 a.m. ET

New York

Fernando Meirelles and I are chatting over coffee in a posh Park Avenue hotel room. "We can behave like this, drink coffee and talk, because we're not under pressure," he says. But "if there was an earthquake here, or a fire, I don't know if I would push you to run, save my skin. I don't know how I would react!"